Fitting Room Fun House

Bloomingdale's new dressing room

Ever drag some clothes into what looks like a vertical coffin outfitted with a fun house mirror lit under a glaring fluorescent bulb?  Suddenly worried about athlete’s foot, you slip on your shoes while trying to figure how the fabric clings against your thighs. 

Can’t tell, so you decide not to take it.

Ugly spaces are instant sales killers. 

Stores have finally come to realize this while also learning that the more clothes the customers shleps into the dressing room, the longer they'll stay there, and the more they'll buy.

So the stores did their homework and redecorated, adding rugs, chandeliers, relaxing chairs, and heavier doors, allowing the customer a sense of privacy.  

According to The Wall Street Journal, 67% of customers who are willing to try on an outfit go through the “conversion” process of buying it.  Only 10% purchase right off-the-rack, and those are mostly men.  

Relaxing chairs, Anthropologie

Bloomingdales, Anthropologie, Old Navy, Macy’s, all got the message. 

They're making changes and leading the rest of the pack.    

Old Navy

Some stores have installed phones so that customers can call and ask for another size, and most have installed lighting that resembles a movie set.  It sets the tone, the mood.  Sometimes, too good a mood.

Was I talking too much? I ask myself., carrying out a three-piece outfit.  (Nobody answer that).  Was the saleswoman saying all the right things, or was it my girlfriend, who doesn’t usually accompany me, correct in gushing about the outfit?

You sure it’s me?  I kept asking her.  She kept repeating it was.  Now I was curious, so curious about what was me, I was tempted to banish the saleslady from the room and sit her down for a long talk. 

But I didn't.

Instead, I bought the long skirt, the tank, and the cover-up that tied in the front.  Except the perfect skirt pooched in the rear, and I swear I didn’t gain weight or join that tribe in Africa where the women have a shelf on their ass.  But if I don’t peek in a three-way mirror and never twirl again, I won’t see it.  

Damn, should’ve taken it back when I could, but ten months later I was still modeling it in the house, trying to get the original feeling back 'cause it looked prettier in that magical room than it ever did when I walked outside those doors.